Data – The Solution to Improved Child Healthcare in India

The healthcare industry historically has generated large amounts of data, which is driven by record keeping, compliance, regulatory requirements and patient care. As the healthcare today is more of patient-centric care, there is growing acceptance that data is the foundation to better and improved healthcare delivery.

With the advent of rapid digitization in healthcare industry, it has become easy to analyze this large amount of data captured, recognize patterns from which conclusions and decisions can be drawn on the various aspects of healthcare, especially child health. By combining and effectively using big data, following potential benefits can be extracted:

• Analyzing disease patterns to improve child health surveillance;
• Improved and accurate development of more targeted vaccines, e.g., choosing the annual influenza strains;
• Identifying the side effects of any vaccination. Recently in some European countries: 1 in 10 girls given HPV vaccine suffered ‘adverse’ reaction (Source: http://ow.ly/BZ10300jU2e)
• Turning large amounts of data into actionable information that can be used to identify gaps and provide services in child nourishment and vaccinations.

Analyzing such kind of data can help in formulating various policies and measures that may help in better outcome for child health. For example – assessing the Fenton & WHO growth charts in a particular community or region can help in identifying patterns of any normal or abnormal growth in that community. Once identified, regulatory bodies can formulate measures to strength the child growth within that community or region.

Healthcare organizations can improve quality of care coordination and services, power accountability and personalized medicine across the ecosystem, create a competitive advantage for increased market share and reduce costs by having a data-centric focus. By enabling the sharing of quality data across multiple systems IT organizations can provide their users with new ways of achieving their desired outcomes. Lastly, proper data management within healthcare industry is the key to attain MDG related to child and maternal health and unleashing the potential of digital healthcare.

Significance of Vaccination for Pre-term Babies

Preterm babies are premature babies that are born before 37 completed weeks of gestation. There are sub-categories of preterm birth, based on gestational age:

• Extremely preterm (<28 weeks) 
• Very preterm (28 to <32 weeks) 
• Moderate to late preterm (32 to <37 weeks)

Source: Kevin Frayer / Associated Press

According to a WHO report, every year an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation), and this number is rising with every year. Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age, responsible for nearly 1 million deaths in 2013. There are various measures or guidelines illustrated by WHO on how to improve pre-term birth outcome; one of which is achieving full immunization against preventable childhood diseases. 

Points to keep in mind 

• All of these babies should be given routinely vaccinations. They should get all of the immunizations on the standard schedule as followed for term babies.
• Administering vaccinations are always safe whether given to term or pre-term and low birth weight babies. 

Why vaccination is so important? 

• Saves a Child’s Life – Timely vaccination ensures a child being protected from various diseases like Diphtheria, Hepatitis B, Measles, Meningitis, etc. Certain diseases like Polio, Smallpox have been eradicated with frequent and timely vaccination being administered.
• Protects not just your Child but the entire Community
• Saves Time and Money related to Healthcare Cost
• Protects Future Generations 

Keeping in mind, all of the above benefits it is very imperative that you as a Healthcare Provider, remind a parent to get their child timely vaccination. We understand that today with such heavy and hectic schedule it becomes difficult to remind each and every patient, but what if we say that technology is here for your rescue? 

What if you adopt a technology in such a way that it automatically reminds each and every parent of your practice in your name for timely vaccination of their child even in the cases of delayed vaccination? Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? If you want to know more on how can technology help you to be updated on your Child’s Health do contact us on ichr@oxyent.com or 011-40644232 for further queries and we’ll be more than happy to help!

Rotavirus vaccine - now a part of country's immunization programme

Introduction to Rotavirus

Rotavirus is a virus that causes gastroenteritis, an infection of the intestines and is one of the most common causes of diarrhea in children under the age of five. Studies have shown that nearly every child catches the infection before their fifth birthday. If infected, the baby may start to encounter the below symptoms in about 18 to 36 hours:

• Low grade fever
• Nausea and vomiting
• Mild to severe diarrhea, that usually lasts for three to seven days
• Abdominal cramps

Launch of Rotavirus Vaccine

The rotavirus vaccine has now been made a part of country’s universal immunization programme (UIP) for four states initially - Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha with expansion to entire country in phased manner. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the rotavirus vaccine as the only prevention and control measure for diarrhea. Most babies who get the vaccine won't get rotavirus diarrhea at all, and almost all of them will be protected from severe rotavirus diarrhea. 

On March 9th 2016, PM Narendra Modi launched India’s first indigenously developed Rotavirus vaccine “Rotavac”. With this launch, the vaccine is expected to bring down the infant deaths due to rotavirus diarrhea in India and across the globe. 

As every hospital’s immunization schedule differs in India, iCHR has the capability to adapt any immunization schedule according to the hospital’s requirement. If your hospital has captured rotavirus vaccine as a mandate vaccine, and is still not a part of your hospital information system (HIS); integrate iCHR in your hospital premises for better management of child health records. Contact us to know more on ichr@oxyent.com or 011-40644232.